“How do I know? Because it snowed in September, and I just said, ‘Yup.’ Like, it wasn’t that big of a deal,” said Treliving, who hails originally from B.C.’s Okanagan Valley and was working in sun-scorched Arizona before being hired by the Flames in April of 2014. “It doesn’t almost destroy you, like it did in the first year we were here. I think that year … In early September, just before we get going, we always do a barbecue for our staff — all the trainers, doctors, equipment guys, coaches — and their families. We have all the kids and wives and husbands of all the staff. And my first year, we did it I think on the Sunday and then on that Tuesday, our golf tournament was snowed out and I was like, ‘You have got to be kidding me!’ That almost took my breath away.

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“But you know you’re full-fledged now when you hear a couple days before that we could get a foot of snow and I’m thinking, ‘Well, yeah, of course we would.’

“This time, I looked at the snow and it’s just, ’What took you so long?’ ”

Hopefully, he doesn’t mind shovelling.

Because on Thursday, just hours before their opener against the Colorado Avalanche, the Flames announced Treliving has signed a multi-year extension, believed to be a three-year pact. His current deal was set to expire after this season.

“Over the past five years, Brad has done an excellent job putting a team together on and off the ice,” said Flames club president John Bean in Thursday’s announcement. “Continuity is important in this role. Brad has earned the trust and respect of our ownership group and our fans. We look forward to continuing our work together as we strive for our ultimate goal — another Stanley Cup championship for the city of Calgary.”

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Treliving inherited several of the core pieces — including captain Mark Giordano and the dynamic duo of Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan — but deserves full marks for assembling a squad that racked up 50 wins and 107 points last winter and, after digesting the disappointment of a first-round playoff flop, is now considered a legitimate championship contender.

He traded for first-line third-wheel Elias Lindholm, for the second defence duo of Noah Hanifin and Travis Hamonic, and others.

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And although he’d like a few mulligans in unrestricted free-agency, Treliving has done well to lock up Calgary’s marquee men at reasonable salary-cap rates.

Of course, the 50-year-old would rather skate a lap of the Saddledome ice in Oilers undies than take individual credit or boast about his own work.

“I’m very grateful and humbled by it,” Treliving said of Thursday’s contract extension. “It’s really nice, I’m really appreciative, but we have lots of work ahead of us and I’m excited to keep doing it. We’re not there yet. Until you reach that ultimate prize, you’re still a work in progress and you haven’t accomplished what you set out to do. So we don’t spend a whole lot of time patting ourselves on the back.

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“Our team went through some transition but to be able to build it now and to be a team that I think has an opportunity to have success and hopefully for the next foreseeable future, that’s because of the work of a lot of people in our organization that are passionate about what we do. Like I said, we haven’t accomplished our goals yet, but it’s a good team now that has an opportunity in front of it. So I look at that, and I look at the people we have been able to assemble, both on the ice and off the ice. It’s a great place to work. It’s a great city to live in. My family loves it. It’s become home.”

Now accustomed to those fall flurries, Treliving would like nothing more than to deliver a championship to his adopted home city.

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Hopefully, Mother Nature would play nice on parade day.

“You dream about it all the time,” Treliving said. “For me, it’s just about making that come true for a lot of people. For our players. For our staff. For our fans, first and foremost.

“What drives you every day is to have that joy, to feel that sense of accomplishment but also because of the impact and the meaning it would have for so many. Ultimately, that’s what drives us. We’re in an ultra-competitive business — there are 30 teams and organizations, a cast of thousands, that are thinking the same way. So it’s hard to do. But anything that is hard to do, really hard to do, is that much more gratifying if you’re able to get there.

“But we’re not going to get ahead of ourselves. Our focus is just the everyday thing. It sort of comes off as cliche, but you have to stick to doing it right every day … And if you keep doing that long enough, hopefully you get the results.”

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